EcoMOBILE – Designing for contextualized STEM learning using mobile technologies and augmented reality

The ubiquity of mobile technologies can unlock new opportunities for “anytime, anywhere” learning, and some argue that portable mobile platforms will inherently lead to more contextualized learning experiences. However, the meaning of contextualization and how to achieve it in mobile designs bears further examination, as the greater the level of contextualization, the more difficult it may be to scale mobile designs. Context is a product of the interaction among learners, the personal, social and physical resources at hand, and mobile technologies. We examine how, through the affordances of mobile technologies, designers might emphasize different aspects of social and physical context in order to support learning. In particular, augmented reality enables students to interact—via mobile wireless devices—with virtual information, visualizations, and simulations superimposed on real-world physical landscapes. The EcoMOBILE activity considered here involved student participation in an outdoor field trip near their school using mobile broadband devices running augmented reality software. We present a case study highlighting two designs focused on a similar middle- grades science learning goal of exploring the local watershed – a place-dependent, collaborative design (“Take a Tour”) and a place-independent, individual design (“Follow the Flow”). We implemented these designs with two different teachers each with four classes of students. We present detailed comparison of the design logic and features of each experience, and a summary of feedback from interviews and student focus groups with attention to feelings of contextualization, engagement and support for learning. Our results showed little difference in student comments related to the contextualization of the experience, which suggests that carefully constructed, yet minimalist designs may support a perception of contextualization that comes from the perspective of the user rather than from the device. A place-independent mobile learning experience may, with minimal modification, be used in a location other than the one in which it was designed, and may still have positive effects on feelings of contextualization, engagement and support for learning among participants.